Question

Fellow Overflowers,

I have a tab delimited csv file which contains dates in this format:
30-11-2011 2:24

I am parsing the csv with FasterSCV gem. I have created a migration which stores this info as datetime. Should I be doing that or define it as string and let Ruby convert it each time i retrieve it?

Do I need maybe to define some FasterCSV converters?

Thanks…

Answer 1

DateTime is a bit tricky. Is has a strict format

irb(main):008:0> DateTime.now
=> Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:14:57 +0100

But you can do this

irb(main):015:0> t = DateTime.parse("30-11-2011 2:24").utc
=> Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:24:00 +0000
irb(main):016:0> t.class
=> DateTime

Now you have a DateTime object. But, pay attention to the time zone at the end of the parse method

When you fill the database use the seeds.rb file in your db folder.
I usually make a text file in the db folder, use my editor and replace all tabs with a “|” and make an array of each line
Lets say it looks like this (asuming it is a todo list)

todo file

make hay|30-11-2011 2:24
fix tractor|24-11-2011 2:14

seeds.rb file

open("db/todo") do |todos|
  todos.read.each_line do |todo|
    n = todo.chomp.split("|")
    Todo.create!(:entry => n[0], :at_date => DateTime.parse("#{n[1]}").utc)
  end
end

then run

rake db:seed

Make a some ruby magic!
I have not tested this code, but it might push you in the right direction